Public concern over the future development of the Slovak economy in January reached higher levels than those seen in the first month of 2010, the Statistics Office announced on February 21, based on a survey it conducted last month, the TASR newswire wrote.
Around 60 percent of those questioned predicted that the economy will deteriorate in the next 12 months, up by 13 percentage points from last year, the Statistics Office stated. Only 15 percent of the respondents were optimistic, down from last year's 18 percent, while 21 percent of the respondents thought that the economy will stay about the same, down 8 percentage points from January 2010.
In addition, 53 percent of those surveyed said they expect consumer prices to increase at a faster pace in the next 12 months. A year ago, only 20 percent of the respondents were of that same opinion. Half of the respondents predicted that the unemployment rate will rise this year but 61 percent thought that would be the case 12 months ago.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
